President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko had a meeting with UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman who is in Ukraine under the instruction of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The President expressed gratitude to the Secretary-General for the support of peace and de-escalation of the situation in the Donbas. The Head of State emphasized that it was not an internal conflict in Ukraine. “People in Donetsk and Luhansk strive for peace. Implementation of our peace plan defines our actions. We understand that it is impossible to solve the situation solely by military means,” the President noted.
The Head of State informed that militants had shelled the convoy of civilians who had tried to escape from Luhansk.
The President also informed on the initiative of the Ukrainian party to send international humanitarian assistance to Luhansk which is on the verge of humanitarian disaster due to the control of terrorists.
The President emphasized that Russian military personnel were present in the Donbas. There is an information that Russia continues sending state-of-art arms: tanks, artillery, rocket launchers, the same that downed Malaysia Airlines aircraft. “I am confident that the attack on civilian aircraft is interpreted by everyone as international terrorism and criminals involved in that must be brought to liability,” Petro Poroshenko stressed.
The Head of State also drew attention to the problem of hostages seized and illegally kept in Russia. “Ordinary Ukrainian citizens were kidnapped by terrorists and there is no explanation why did they find themselves in Russian prisons. We want the international community to help us liberate our hostages,” the President said.
The UN Under-Secretary-General expressed gratitude to the President on behalf of the Secretary-General for his peaceful initiatives and invited him to take part in the meeting of the UN General Assembly that is to be held in New York next month.